Samsung Galaxy S III – ‘Designed for Humans’

I couldn’t sleep last night. I was really nervous and skeptical. Those feelings grew stronger up until the very moment that Samsung’s press event started today. I kept asking myself over and over again, “what if the Samsung Galaxy S III isn’t designed for humans?” I shuddered at the thought and took a deep breath. Finally, my prayers were answered. Samsung’s Galaxy S III device has been revealed and yes, it is designed for humans.

That was the talk of the keynote. Samsung shifted gears right before everyone’s eyes. Forget the spec; it’s dead. People want emotion in their products and Samsung gave it to them — er, or at least attempted to.

I am but one observer, but it seemed an awful lot like Samsung was trying to copy Apple’s emotional appeal that has given it such immense success over the years. Steve Jobs always put his heart and soul into every product that passed through the Cupertino headquarters and customers could sense it. It’s something that no other company in its field has been able to match. The problem with Samsung’s approach today was that it didn’t seem to understand what it means exactly to put emotion into products.

Let me keep this short: it does not mean to have them “designed for humans” or “inspired by nature.”

Cue the Android army to rush in to tell me I’m wrong and that the Galaxy S III is the best damn phone this universe has ever seen. Seize fire because I acknowledge it is a very good phone. I’m sure it’s going to sell very well in 2012 and give Samsung an added boost in the market. I’m really impressed with the 1.9MP front camera and its ability to shoot HD video. I wish other manufacturers including Apple got on board with this sooner. I’m just having a hard time wrapping my head around the ‘designed for humans’ concept.

For starters, if this phone is designed for humans, why can’t I use it in one hand? I’ve seen the hands-on videos. It’s huge. One of the reasons why I like the smaller display on my iPhone is because I can hold it with four fingers behind it and use my thumb to touch any part of the screen. You can’t do that with the Galaxy S III, yet it’s “designed for humans.”

The Galaxy S III features a large 2100 mAh battery. This is nice, but this phone is introducing a lot of features that can suck all the juice out of that battery quickly. Plus, Samsung introduced not one, not two, but three different battery accessories today at the event to help the phone last longer. That’s never a good sign, yet it’s “designed for humans.”

Another marketing slogan for the GSIII is that it’s “inspired by nature.” It comes in two colors: pebble blue and marble white. Loesje De Vriese, head of Samsung Mobile marketing in Belgium, even made a point to say that it has nature-esque alert tones and sounds to delight you while using the phone and then followed up with the fact that it’s a bit bizarre. Samsung, if it’s bizarre, why the hell are you putting it into your products?

I’m also bit creeped out by the fact that this phone knows my every move, including when my eyes shut at night because the front facing camera watches you. This is one thing that keeps with the theme of being designed for humans, I suppose, but it seems like this is mainly a technology that you’ll use twice, brag about to friends three or four times, and then stop caring about it. Was it really that much of an effort to just hit the lock switch before going to bed or waiting an extra minute for the display to shut off on its own after you haven’t interacted with it? The amount of battery that eye tracker drains is probably more than what the display uses during the extra minute it’s left on.

The same goes for other features. S Beam is pretty cool for transferring files and what not, but it’s nothing new. It’s just expanding on a technology that already exists while slapping on the “designed for humans” marketing strategy. The feature that enables you to put the Galaxy S III up to your ear to automatically call the person you’re texting seems like a novelty too. You’ll use it a few times, show your friends how insanely awesome your new gadget is, and then it’s over. As for S Voice, well, I suppose I have to ask “is Samsung Siri-ous?”

That’s just it. Lots of gimmicky features are not what makes a product “designed for humans” in the way Samsung is using the phrase. The slogan feels like more of a marketing ploy to get users to think they can connect emotionally with a device that understands their needs instead of actually allowing them to do so. That is where Samsung fails to convey the genuine emotion Apple always integrates into its products.

A monkey hitting random keys on a keyboard would type a more intelligent insult than this one.

AK

Mate…you shouldn’t be allowed to blog on this website, I thought it was a good and unbiased website but now that I see fanboy trolls like you are allowed to comment on awesome products such as the GS3, and bring apple in the conversation…I am not coming back here. Get a life

Gavinbauman1322

so the lack of 4g in every iPhone wasfor a reason? orwas it just because people would buy it anyway?

Graham Parkes

Author comes across as a bit of an Apple fanboy.

Yes, designed for humans, not sheep………..Baa!

Toronto20@yahoo.com

Yup…its dripping Applesque..dont hate bc its not an iPhone…best thing that cracked me up are tags to this artice: 1. Apple 2. Android 3. Device ha ha ha so much apple in this article i’ll soon be alergic to it

And please do not bother replying… can’t wait for Nokia and HTC to do the same sooner…

Anonymous

just another example of samsung having absolutely no idea what they’re doing besides trying to copy everything apple, which is understandable considering its the superior platform and much more successful moneymaker.

Well George I don’t know if Samsung is “Siri-ous” but that’s a question you shouldn’t be S-pecially asking. 😉

LANDIS

I keep hoping that Intomobile will actually do some unbiased and fairly objective writing. Then I read I-Drivel like this and understand I really can’t expect that from a bunch of adolescent fanboys, given cyberspace to gush about all things Apple. I get enough spam in my life….Unfollowed.

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Anonymous

Have to agree George, which causes me to wonder. Who is responsible for Samsung’s marketing anyway? Is it done in-house to save money? Or do they have a reputable agency coming up with the product’s tag lines? It’s really bizarre that a company with Samsung’s clout would do it in-house but there are hints that this might be going on. For instance, the copy on their website is so poorly written at times (by this I mean ungrammatical with misspellings and more, kind of in the vein of an ESL student) that it marks a huge contrast with the copy on Apple’s product pages, and don’t even get me started on on last year’s marketing campaign for the SIII’s predecessor the SII.

‘Don’t Contain Yourself’ was just meh, uninspired and more than a little plain. The ‘Letters from the World’ campaign was just plain embarrassing at times. I mean ‘Letter from Jim’ with some ‘hot-shot lawyer’ who wastes his time filming stray cats with his SII was absolutely horrendous.

The strongest of the four was probably ‘Letter from Kashandra’ and that was only because it demonstrated how the phone could actually aid a consumer in achieving professional goals (in her case it was to become a fashion editor). Their marketing is routinely goofy and poorly executed. Maybe they’re just not at a point yet where they’re ready to hire real talent at a top agency.

Omar El banna

why are you so bias to apple. you should just tell the info that you know not make the other company look bad because you ‘think’ they copied it.